London Fashion Week: the new faces replace the old

The buzz that surrounds London Fashion Week gets more audible every season. We are reminded with facts and figures that London is a leading creative capital and one where both creativity and commerce have equal footing. This season 83 designers showcased their collections across the five days of London Fashion Week, a marginal increase perhaps from 77 four seasons ago, but a growth nonetheless.

The importance of fashion in economic terms is where it all matters: womenswear is worth 27 billion pounds to the UK economy and expected to grow 23 percent to 32 billion pounds in the next four years, a staggering industry on any level. If we consider nearly 800,000 people are employed in fashion businesses, its importance only gets further elevated.

There is no mention of struggling brands

As keen as the British Fashion Council is to share positive growth figures with its sponsors and the public - it's role is to promote British fashion on the global stage - there is an other side to coin, the struggle faced by so many brands and designers, that isn't as audible as it is visible.

The first reality check is the AW16 shows in London had a different face this season. Gone were the week's stalwart designers Jonathan Saunders and Richard Nicholl and many others who once dominated the London scene. Gone were well-known designers with formidable collections, who were endlessly championed by industry and media alike but who's businesses didn't survive. They have since disappeared into the obscurity of fashion's past, and disappeared without so much as a whisper.

Only six months ago editors praised Saunders for his SS16 collection, which they labeled as "effortless, breezy, sensuous clothes." And just a year ago Nicholl was lauded as perfecting the "guy-meets-girl" androgyny aesthetic, still relevant today considering the Gucci-phenomenon, for his spring summer 2015 collection.

But these praises have since disappeared with the wind. And in fashion the winds can change at any moment, that is the nature of the industry. And like nature itself, it is a Darwinist survival of the fittest. So perhaps it makes little sense to be nostalgic for yesteryears brands or even last season's collections, when fashion is nothing more than a lens that shows us the current zeitgeist and truth.

So that lens best be put away at times. For all the hopeful brands, emerging designers and new breed of talent that were championed at LFW this season, only a handful will make it beyond a few seasons, and even less than that will turn into formidable businesses. The Designer Showrooms was filled with these hopefuls, and for many the clothes had already spoken.

So for now, let everyone share in the moment of London Fashion Week's glory. 35million people across the UK will see LFW content on 60 outside screens, bringing greater visibility to the industry than any previous season. Let's hope that visibility will be beneficial to all the brands, who have so arduously put their hearts, souls and cash into their autumn winter 2016 collections.

Image:LFW screen